Image: The Glow team tries ‘the tooth-ache’.
Do you see photos of yourself and wish there was a way to make your face look just that tiny bit slimmer? Happy news – it’s entirely possible, and you don’t need surgery, Photoshop or some bizarre image editing app to make it happen.
To make your face look lovely and slender, you just need to pretend you have a really painful cavity. Fun!
According to Kotaku, the latest photo trend sweeping Japan involves women posing with a hand against their cheek, as if they have a toothache; the only difference being that rather than cringing in pain, they’re smiling adorably. Like this:
Show us your best Cavity Pose
So maybe the trick is to pretend you have a decaying tooth that’s just been treated with numbing cream.
This pose has been picked up across social media, but it’s also gone commercial – several magazines, including Nylon, have featured cover girls pulling their best toothache face. The proof is in this photo shared by Twitter user Okoge, who asked, “Does everyone have cavities?”
Dentists across Japan must be so confused right now.
Kotaku reports the cavity pose - which is apparently called "mushiba no poozu" in Japanese - emerged last year and has picked up on social media throughout 2014. The reason for its popularity is that, apparently, it's an easy trick to make your face look slimmer or smaller.
We here at The Glow decided to test that theory. Here are the results:
The Glow team does cavity pose
This isn't the first cute photo trend to come out of Japan in recent months. The cavity pose's predecessor, 'Sparrow Face', hit the mainstream last year. This pose involves opening your eyes really wide, angling your chin slightly downwards and opening your mouth like a baby bird waiting for a worm. It's quite a complex process - an introductory drama course could be necessary to pull off a convincing sparrow face.
Exhibit A:
The aim of all that? To look adorable.
We can't guarantee that using either of these poses in your selfies won't make you look a bit silly, but they can't look any more ridiculous than the ubiquitous duckface. Kim Kardashian, take note.
Will you be trying the cavity pose in your next happy snap?
